They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
(2017) 389 pages

 “No matter how we choose to live, we both die at the end.” What would you do if you were suddenly told that you have less than 24 hours to live? In the fictional novel “They Both Die at the End” by Adam Silveria, the main characters Mateo and Rufus had to think about that when they both receive a phone call telling them that they are going to die sometime that day.

The story is about two teenagers that got a phone call from an agency telling them that they are going to die that day. This agency is referred to as death cast. They will give you a call on the day of your death at midnight, to inform you that you will be dying sometime that day. In this book anyone who receives their call is referred to as a decker. Mateo is an 18-year-old Puerto Rican boy who suffers from anxiety. His father has been in a coma for two weeks and his mother passed away while giving birth to him. He has always dreaded getting the phone call so he kept himself hidden in his apartment, but it was inevitable. Rufus is a bisexual 17-year-old Cuban American boy who is rather outgoing. He has been in foster care ever since his parents and sister died after getting their call from death cast, six months ago. The night before he had gotten his call, he made the worst decision of his life, which became his biggest regret. But ultimately it is what will lead him to meet Mateo.

From reading this book the reader can learn they should live their life and do as much as they can while they have the chance.  We don’t have a system to tell us when we’re going to die, so it’s best to live how you want with no regrets. His whole life Mateo isolated himself by staying in his room every day. It wasn’t until he had only one day left to live, that he realized he needed to do something with his life instead of being scared of the outside world. As he thinks to himself after receiving his call “I guess what I’ll miss the most are the wasted opportunities to live my life.”(8-9) The book also teaches that everyone’s time on earth is limited. With this precious time we all need to spend it wisely and not do the things that you don’t want to be remembered for. Rufus had beaten up his ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend almost to the brink of death. The next day Rufus receives the death cast. When the police showed up at his foster home he knew he had made a grave mistake. He didn’t want to spend his last couple hours of life stuck in jail as he realized “Dying sucks, I bet, but betting locked up while life keeps going on without you has gotta be worse.”

What I like about this book is that the characters and their problems are relatable. The way Mateo would rather stay in his room all day, sometimes I feel like I can stay in bed instead of getting up and dressed for school. How Rufus likes to live his life carelessly reminds me not to be as reckless. There were some fun action scenes, like when a decker decided to self-destruct in the same place where Mateo and Rufus were. Or the time when the guy Rufus had beaten up decided to try and kill Rufus, who was with Mateo at the time and it ended up putting them both in danger. The book is in a mostly first-person point of view, but it switches each chapter, giving you point of view from both Mateo and Rufus but also the side characters they pass on their way and even their friends and the people trying to kill them. I do have one complaint though, which would be the romance between the two main characters. It was pretty predictable, but it was also kind of random. I am a romance fan, and I did enjoy the sad romance at the end, but it was sort of rushed. It was almost like the author had forgotten to write their love story for half the book. And some would say that they liked them better as friends or platonic soulmates, but I guess it comes down to the reader in the end.

The book is a boy loves boy story and that might be unsettling for some people, it shouldn’t be but you never know. Some people enjoy these kinds of romance stories and some don’t, so I would recommend it to someone who does enjoy them. The plot is interesting with the premise of our time on earth being limited. It is also something you could read if you want to cry a little. I personally didn’t cry while reading it, but I wanted to at some points. When they say “I would have loved you if we had more time” I thought that maybe the author would not let the main characters die, that maybe there would be a twist and they’ll live happily ever after. But maybe the real twist is that there is no twist! You will have to read the book to find out.